Rail sweep for railway cars



April 19, 1938.. J MID EY 2,114,721

RAIL SWEEP FOR RAILWAY CARS Fi led Dec. 24, 1937 Patented Apr. 19, 1938v. UNITED .STATES PATENT" OFF V RAIL SWEEP FOR, RAILWAY CARS JosephMidgley, Merrifield, Minn, assignor to Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc.,Fairmont, Minn, a corporation of Minnesota Application December 24,1937, S'erial No. 18L567 8 Claims; (cr mp- 279) V of the inventionillustrated in the drawing, 5

This invention relates to improvements in railsweeps for railway carsand it consists of the matters hereinafter described and moreparticularly pointed out in'the appended claims.

The invention relates generally to devices commonly known as rail sweepsused in connection with the lighter types of railway cars such asinspection cars, push, section,

gang, hand and similar cars which in their use on track, must be removedfrom time to time to passage of trains.

permit the The type of rail sweep in most common use on such carsconsists of a relatively short piece of discarded air hose previously inuse on the heavier rolling stock of a railroad. Such hose,

which is relatively stiff, is so arranged at one end of the car thatone'end of said hose comes into close proximity to the tread of a railto sweep'the rail clean of stones and the like, which might causederailment.

With such a sweep,

when the other end of the car is raised in vremoving it from the track,the said end of the hose comes into contact with the rail and inter-'feres with the smooth free movement of the car during the removalthereof.

The general objectof the present invention is to provide a rail sweepconstruction, whichwhen a portion thereof engages the rail, in theremoval of the associated car from the track, will automatically move toan inoperative position wherein it is entirely free from engagement withthe rail whereby car removal A further object of the invention is toprois facilitated;

specification proceeds.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is aview in side elevation of one of the lighter types of railwaycars to which the improved rail sweep construction has been applied.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view in side elevation on an enlarged scale ofparts appearing at the right hand end of Fig. 1 andwhich will be morefully" referred to later.

Fig. 31s a detail vertical sectional view through the'parts shown inFig. 2 as taken on the line 3-3 thereof.

Fig. 4 is a top plan view ofthe parts appearmat embodiment 7 member ii.

dicated as at I4. As shown herein said arm is 1 indicates as a whole, alighter type of railway car including'a frame having longitudinal framemembers'or sills 6 and which frame is mounted upon front and rear setsor pairs of flanged wheels 1 that are adapted to run on the rails 8 of arailway track. The frame members or sills 6 are in the form of channelswith their flanges directed inwardly of the car. At each side of thatend of the car constituting the advancing end thereof when the car is inmotion, is mounted the improved rail sweep construction indicated as awhole as at 9. There isone of such constructions for each rail. As theparts involved in each rail sweep construction are alike, except forbeing rights and lefts, a detailed description of the parts involved inone sweep construction will sufiice for both.

The improved rail sweep construction includes a support or bracket I0adapted for attachmerit to the outer surface of the front end of theframe member or'sill 6, in advance of the associated pair of wheels I.As herein shown, said support is in the form of a flat metallic bar orstrap having its front end formed with a through the mid portion of thesupport and the web of the associated member 6 from the outside thereof,the usual nut being applied to the inner end ofthe bolt as appears inFig. 4.

[3 indicates a shouldered stud bolt which is so fixed in the framemember 6 as to pass outwardly through the web of the same and throughthe rear end ofsaid support It so as to coact with the bolt I 2 tosecure the support to the side frame The arm of the rail sweep is incylindrical in cross section and carries a sleeve l5 -at its top endthat is journalled on that part of the stud bolt l3 outwardly beyond theframe member 6. This sleeve is removably held against endwise movementon the studbolt by a washer and pin it. About midway between the ends ofthe sleeve I5 is a pair of longitudinally spaced annular shoulders H.The arm I4 is arranged at other than a right angle to the sleeve l5 soas to angle slightly outwardly from the sleeve so that when the sweepconstruction is in operative relation to the rail 8, its other endapproaches the median line thereof as best'appears in'Fig. 3.

Said-other end of the arm I4 carries a sweeping member 18. This memberl8, which extends diagonally of the rail so as to angle rearwardlytoward the outside of the head of the rail, may well be made from apiece of belting. As shown herein, the upper major portion of saidmember is disposed between front and rear clamping plates l9 and 20secured together and to the arm in any suitable manner. The top end ofthe front plate I9 is curved over forwardly to serve as a snow flange.

2| indicates a part of the actuating member for swinging the arm [4 fromits operative toits inoperative position. As shown herein, said part isin the form of a bar disposed in the plane of the space between the pairof shoulders I! on the sleeve 15. One end of said bar is curved upwardlyas at 22, the inside of the curve being on approximately the same radiusas the outside of the sleeve l5. The extremity of said bar end 22 isengaged on a cross pin 23 carried by the shoulders I! and said pinfunctions as a crank arm. The other end of the bar 2| is connected toone end of an elastic element such as a spring 24,

the other end of which is connected to the hook I! of the support orbracket Hi.

When the arm I4 is in its operative sweeping position with respect tothe rail, it stands in substantially a vertical position with the memberIt! in sweeping proximity to the rail and as appears in Fig. 2, said armmust swing in a counterclockwise direction to its inoperative positionas indicated in dotted lines therein. When the arm is in its verticaloperative position as shown in full lines in Fig. 2, it cannot swingclockwise beyond said position by reason of the engagement of the curvedend part 22 of the bar 2| with the sleeve l5. In this position of theparts, it is to be noted that the crank arm pin 23 is disposed above thehorizontal plane of the axis about which the'arm l4 swings and thisposition of said pin, in connection with the pull of the spring 24,constitutes an overcenter lock for the arm l4 against further swingingclockwise beyond a vertical plane.

When the arm I 4 is swung counterclockwise through such an angle, thatthe pin 23 passes below a plane extending through the axis of the studbolt l3 and the point of attachment of the spring 24 to the support endll, then said spring functions to swing the arm into the dotted lineinoperative position appearing in Fig. 2, when the contractile force ofthe spring is expended.

Assume that the car 5 in Fig. 1 is moving along the track towards theright and that the arm l4 stands in its operative position shown in fulllines in said figure wherein the member I8 is disposed in operativeposition with respect to the rail. Due to the angular position of saidmember with respect to the tread of the rail, stones .and the like whichmay happen to be on said tread are swept oii toward the outside of therail.

Assume that it is necessary to remove the car 5 from the track. The rearend of the car is lifted upwardly so that the front end swingsdownwardly about the axis of the axle for the front wheels. As the rearend of the car is lifted upwardly, it is moved slightly rearwardly. Inthis movement of the car, the member l8 engages the rail and this causesthe arm M to swing counter-clockwise through an angle into the relativeposition shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, wherein the overcenter lookbefore mentioned, is released. When the overcenter lock has beenreleased, the spring 24 contracts to swing the arm into an out of theway position on the car.

When the car has been replaced upon the track, the arm is manuallyreturned to its operative position wherein the over-center lock againbecomes effective.

It is apparent that by the construction described, the arm, in theinitial part of removing the car from the rail, operates automaticallyto move into its inoperative position.

The improved sweep'structure is simple in construction but eflicient inoperation and may be applied not only to new cars of the kind mentioned,but to those already in service.

While in describing the invention, I have referred in detail to theform, arrangement and construction of the parts involved, the same is tobe considered only in the illustrative sense so that I do not wish 'tobe limited thereto except as may be specifically set forth in theappended claims. 1

I claim as my invention:

1. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, a rail sweep for one of said rails and operativelyconnected to the car longitudinally outward from one of said sets ofwheels for a movement with respect to the car from an operativeppositionto .an inoperative position, said sweep when in its operative positionhaving an end disposed in sweeping relation with respect to the tread ofone of said rails, and means carried by the car and connected to saidsweep and operative when the other end of the car is elevated about theaxis of said one set of wheels to engage said end of the sweep with saidtread to actuate said means carried by the car .and connected to thesweep to move the same intoits inoperative position.

2. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, .a rail sweep for one of said rails and pivotallyconnected to the car longitudinally outward from one of said sets ofwheels for a swinging movement from an operative to an inoperativeposition, said sweep when in its operative position having .an enddisposed in sweeping relation with respect to the tread of one of saidrails, and means carried by the car and connected to said sweep andoperative when the other end of the car is elevated about the axis ofsaid one set of wheels to engage said end of the sweep with said treadto actuate said means carried by the car and connected to the sweep toswing the same into its inoperative position.

3. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, a rail sweep for one of said rails and operativelyconnected to the car longitudinally outward from one of said sets of.

wheels for a movement with respect to the car from an operative positionto an inoperative position, a rail sweeping member carried by'one end ofsaid rail sweep, said member when said rail sweep is in its operativeposition standing diagonally across and in sweeping relation withrespect to the tread of one of said rails, and means carried by the carand connected to said sweep and operative when the other end of the caris elevated about the axis of said one set of wheels to engage saidsweeping member with said tread to actuate said means carried by the carand connected to the sweep to move the same into its inoperativeposition.

4. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, a rail sweep for one of said rails and pivotallyconnected to the car longitudinally outward from one of said sets ofwheels for a swinging movement from an operative to an inoperativeposition, a rail sweeping member carried by an end of said rail sweep,said member when said rail sweep is in its operative position standingdiagonally across and in sweeping relation with respect to the tread ofone of said rails, and means carried by the car and connected to saidsweep and operative when the other end of the car is elevated about theaxis of said one set of wheels to engage said sweeping member with saidtread to actuate said means carried by the car and connected to thesweep to move the same into its inoperative position.

5. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, a rail sweep for one of said rails, means pivotallyconnecting said rail sweep to the car for, a swinging movement from anoperative position with respect to the tread of one of said rails to aninoperative position, and means including an elastic element forswinging the rail sweep from the operative position to the inoperativeposition, said last mentioned means being constructed to hold said railsweep in either of said positions.

6. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, a rail sweep for one of said rails, means pivotallyconnecting said rail sweep to the car for aswinging movement from anoperative position with respect to the tread of one of said rails to aninoperative position, means providing a crank arm for the pivoted end ofsaid rail sweep, an elastic member having one end fixed with respect tothe car, and means operatively connecting said crank arm and the otherend of said elastic means for swinging the sweep from the operativeposition to the inoperative position, said elastic member and said lastmentioned means cooperating in connection with said crank arm means forholding the rail sweep in either of its positions.

'7. In combination with a railway car having sets of wheels and adaptedto be manually removed from and replaced upon the rails upon which saidwheels engage, a rail sweep for one of said rails, means pivotallyconnecting said rail sweep to the car for a swinging movement from anoperative position with respect to the tread of one of said rails to aninoperative position, means providing a crank arm forthe pivoted end ofsaid rail sweep, an elastic member having one end fixed with respect tothe car, and means operatively connecting said crank arm and the otherend of said elastic means for swinging the sweep from the operativeposition to the inoperative position, said elastic means and said lastmentioned means cooperating with said crank arm in providing anovercenter lock for yieldingly holding the rail sweep in its operativeposition.

8. In a rail sweep construction for railway cars, a supporting meansadapted for attachment to a railway car, a sweep arm, means forpivotally -mo-unting the sweep arm on said supporting

